1. Technical Field
The present document relates to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus that magnetically excites a nuclear spin in a subject body with a radio frequency (RF) signal at the Larmor frequency and reconstructs an image from a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal yielded as a result of the excitement, and control method thereof. In particular, it relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus capable of non-contrast magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), which produces a blood flow image without using a contrast medium and control method thereof.
2. Related Art
Magnetic resonance imaging is an imaging technique that magnetically excites nuclear spin in a subject body laid in a static magnetic field with an RF signal at the Larmor frequency and reconstructs an image from an MR signal yielded as a result of the excitement.
In the field of magnetic resonance imaging, the arterial spin labeling (ASL) technique is a known technique of producing a blood flow image in a non-contrast manner (see Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-28525), for example). The ASL technique is to render an image of a blood flow by labeling blood by applying an ASL pulse. As is known, in the ASL technique, a background signal can be suppressed by performing subtraction between image data acquired by using the blood labeling and image data acquired without using the blood labeling.